Uttar Pradesh counters central government over power supply situation

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh's power utility countered central government's criticism over short supply of electricity when most parts of the state are under heat wave. It called centre's statements an eye wash and said that the centre is distorting facts of power supply situation.

Newly formed NDA government and Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh are blaming each other for long power supply cuts in the state where ruling Samajwadi Party failed to make a mark in the general elections. Opposition parties are claiming that Yadav government is victimising voters in the constituencies that did not vote for his party.

Of the state's demand for 12,700 Mw, power utilities are able to cater about 10,700 Mw is met, leaving a shortfall of 2,000 Mw. The state's power utilities are suffering transmission and distribution losses to the tune of 32%, which translates into loss of Rs 7,000 crore per annum to state exchequer. Power utilities of Uttar Pradesh are able to supply electricity for less than 13 hours in urban areas and eight hours in villages.

On Friday evening, Press Information Bureau's statement read that 600-Mw power project Anpara-C is not generating electricity because of non-procurement of imported coal by the generating company. "This is wrong that Anpara C is not procuring imported coal. In fact, it is only due to imports that one of its units is operational. Coal India subsidiary Northern Coalfield has not been able to provide any coal from its Khadia mine for the last 15 days. Against the allocation of 5,200 Mw for Uttar Pradesh from the central power stations, we are getting only 4,200 Mw from second week of May," Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman SK Agarwal told ET.

He added government of India should see the problem in the present context and improve supply of coal to Anpara C. Agarwal disagreed with centre's claim of availability of power from the its generating stations to Uttar Pradesh normal.

"Uttar Pradesh is not taking power equivalent to its allocation from gas based stations of Anta, Aurayia and Dadri and in case requisition is made by the state distribution utilities, about 300 mw can be made available immediately," said centre that suggested Uttar Pradesh government to procure 377 Mw from NTPC's Jhajjar plant like it did during the election season from May 3 to 15.

Agarwal said that these gas based plants are not operating at full capacity due to inadequate gas availability. Incidentally, Tata Power's electricity distribution arm has also offered to surrender its capacity allocation from these three plants on account of their higher costs.

Centre also suggested Uttar Pradesh to procure adequate power from the power exchanges to meet its shortage while the state has already started buying close to 800 Mw from Indian Energy Exchange alone. On Friday evening, it also asked NTPC to supply 325 Mw of supply till June 7. Uttar Pradesh is unable to procure power from not only southern grid but lack of transmission network is also preventing UPPCL from availing 700 Mw of power it tied up early this year to meet summer demands.